Rock Bridge Comes to Town

Game 2: 30 August vs. Columbia Rock Bridge at 5:30 (3-1)

Step 2 was much improved over Step 1 as we played a better opponent in a better all-round soccer match. Here was a night where we once again limited a team to only a bit of offense, and we created lots of opportunities, especially with the small wind advantage in the first half.

That first half we created 9 corner kicks. We took 11 shots with 6 of them on frame.  We also cashed two of our 30-yard set pieces, both off the foot of Parker Stoecklein. We did give up a goal in the closing seconds of that first half, and that's never good.

Second half we had most of the possession, but we only took a couple of shots, scoring on one of them, but still generated 4 more corners. Now we need to score on a couple of those.

Shae Wirt had a big-time game in goal, producing at least 3 upper-level plays (check this out).  And so did Parker Stoecklein. But BWhite named Matthew Connor the BWhite Player of the Match—our 3rd goal from Joey to him was pretty special.

All in all, we had a lot of guys play well second half, and that is what we need players 1-19 contributing.

Now, we will take a week off before we entertain BV Northwest at home.

STATS:

Saints:  Shots: 11 (6) (Mason 2, Farrar, Stoecklein, Payne 2, Colling, Vance, Caragher, Arias, Neely)  Corners: 9 (Connor, Caragher, Russell, Arias, Payne, Kraft, Neely, Vance, Mason)

37:33 Payne (Parker floats the 30-yarder for a nice Payne header)

2:39 Farrar (Parker floats another one for a Colling header, then a Save, and)

Bruins: Shots 1 (1) Corners: (1)

0:25 Johnson (a nice ball over our centerback and in front of our wingback)

Second Half:

Saints: Shots 2 (2) (Mason, Connor) Corners: 4 (Connor 2, Vance, Arias) 

9:07 Connor (Caragher turns and spanks a long through ball)

Bruins: Shots 1 (1) Corners: 2

Opening Night

Game 1: 24 August 2018 vs. St. James at STA (0-1)

The atmosphere was electric as this year's opening night ended up back at Aquinas.  And despite what we had talked about ahead of time both of us played heads down as hard as we could. So the game offered up lots of energy but not enough soccer and possession.

We did fall 1-0, but that was after missing a PK, and scoring on a corner, but losing the goal on a handball. We produced 8 corners to St. James', 0, but where it counted on the scoreboard, we had 0, and they had 1.

We didn't give up many shots or opportunities, yet on the best opportunity that St. James had, Nguyen buried it from deep.

BWhite named Andrew Payne as the BWhite Player of the Match. He played well at centerback. We would be hard pressed to find much wrong with his game tonight.

I know this is a hard one to swallow, but it's a long season. The Clevinger/Cobb cup moves to St. James now, for the first time ever—quite a streak. 15-0-2  before the match against the Thunder; now that record moves to 15-1-2.

It was a great crowd, one of the best in the match's history. And we got to talk briefly after the match with Mr. Clevinger, and before the match with many alums and parents of alums. Just great support.

Lots of games to go, and we think we have a pretty darn good squad this year.  We will shake this off to take on a very good Rock Bridge team next Thursday.

STATS:

First Half:

Saints: Shots 4 (2) Corners: 3 (Consuegra, Russell, own)

Thunder: Shots 1 (1) Corners: 0

Second Half:

Saints: Shots: 8 (4) Corners: 5 (Carta, Stoecklein, Conner 2, Mason)

PK

Corner

St. James Shots: 2 (1) Corners: 0

Nguyen (ball squirts out from us)

Blue-Gold

Game 0: 22 August at STA vs. JV (8-1)

Well, it was a different Blue-Gold from 2017, umm, after the first 25 minutes.  The score stood 1-1 at that point just after Owen Kanakaras finished a deflected deadball to tie the score.

We moved Evan back to the "6" where he had played most of the summer, and we took off scoring 8 unanswered. (That could have been more without a very nice night in goal by freshman Carter Diggs. We also saw some big-time defense from quite a few of the JV defenders like Muckerman, White, Schroeder, and Weinrich.) 

Hopefully, we will see the last 55 minutes (Well, we couldn't play the last 1:30 as the lights went off promptly at 8:30–so call it 53 minutes) carry over to Friday, a game that we were losing last year 1-0 with 4 minutes to play. We did get that game tied, but we were not great in that 2017 opener.

Tonight, we did generate 15 corners. That's crazy—even if it were against our own JV.

BWhite recognized Zayveon Russell as the BWhite Player of the Match. He did cash 3 goals, nearly 5. He is quick, quicker than he was last season with an improved first touch, and he showed that nose for the goal that we saw this summer.  B gave a shoutout to Matthew Conner who produced a lot of those corners with his relentless attack of the baseline, adding a couple of assists and a goal himself.

And we were missing Captain, starter, returning All-State, Reid Howard who may be concussed and out for a short while.  So perhaps a little of that opening 25 was adjusting to some tweaks in the line-up.  

STATS:

First Half: Corners 9: (Farrar, Conner 3, Bryson 2, Carta, Zayveon 2.)

Varsity

25:50 Connor (Neely chests the throw-in before laying it back to Vance for the long service.)

5:10 Russell: (Neely pushes it forward to Parker whose tackle spits it out to Z)

2:05 Russell: (This goal offers a great build started by Shea that ends with Connor's chip that Z heads in.)

:05 Stoecklein: (Connors demos STA soccer pushing the perfect T-Ball to the slot for the nice Parker finish.)

Junior Varsity: Corners: 1

15:15 Kanakares  (DJ White plays the direct kick that we misclear off our own back.

Second Half:

Varsity: Corners: 6 (Connor 2, Zayveon, Stoecklein, Arias, Caragher)

32:07 Caragher (Joey knocks in the end of the corner)

20:53 Russell (the hat comes off the D-ball from Kraft)

13:01 Payne (Joey lifts his patented deadball from the right side)

8:32 Stoecklein (Jack finds Parker in the box)

2018 PreSeason Preview

Evan Neely is back home. Shae Wirt is back home.  Brennan Schroeder is back home. But the boys found theme in England's 2018 approach to the World Cup—and the Brits got so close to returning the cup to England this summer. And its well documented that the Brits really took a hard look at the deadball and their shortcomings over the past World Cups in that area. (They sent coaches to observe NBA basketball to summon new methods of creating space.) They became the best in the World at the corner kick!

So hopefully we can borrow more than just theme from England. No, we won't have all-staters Curt Whigham and Landon Wirt, but we will return a ton from last year's final-four team. And we have aged well.  We will start 8-9 seniors—and that stat bodes well for any soccer team, but especially here at STA.

If we run some system with 3 across the top, we look for an all-senior front line of Matthew Carta, Jack Mason and Reid Howard (we know, he was all-state at centerback last season). With Jack at the 9, we have the fastest human at Aquinas there, and he can get to goal and create goals for others. We can even run a second line out there that doesn't drop off much, if at all, with sophomores Max Bryson and Zayveon Russell, along with senior Matthew Conner.

We will field a midfield that should be able to compete with any we come up against.  Evan Neely, at the 10, will be as good as any other high school soccer player in the state. And he can move up the field as well.  Joey Caragher will probably start at the 6 (second team ALL EKL as a junior), But we also have senior Esteban Arias who can play the 10 as well.  Parker Stoeklein looks like the 8, with both sophomore Drew Welch and junior Jack Martin looking to get time there as well.  Junior and STUCO president Gabe Kraft can play the 6 or either of the centerback spots. We have a lot of talent in the middle of the field, enough to play some diamond midfield as well this season.

Our backline will continue to be an Aquinas strength this year as well.  We will feature one of our few underclassmen in the middle of the back in sophomore Mitchell Farrar (yes, he started as a freshman) who will pair with senior Andrew Payne.  Jacob Colling comes off a great club season with Rush to take the right-back spot, and we will bring back Jacob Vance at left back (and his sweet corner kick with him).  Senior Cristhian Consuegra can play any of the back spots as well. Obviously, Reid can grab some defensive minutes as well and sophomore DJ White just had a great summer for us.

Defending the net will be one of our strengths.  Shae Wirt, a former Sporting Junior, should return to his starting spot with PJ Garcia backing him up.  That's very strong.

We don't see our schedule offer so many chances usually, but this season should be even more entertaining as we travel to SM South and bring both Wichita North and Columbia Rock Bridge to STA—all new opponents. Even our bracket in the Go For Goal Classic brings completely different teams.  We open with Quincy out of Illinois—the team we played in 2009 in the championship match of the National tourney.  

On the coaching front, we have some NEW as well. Coach Turner has headed over to EKL rival, Blue Valley North, to guide the Mustangs. Coach Ragsdale will take over for him.  And Coach Luengo is taking a year off with former UMKC midfielder, Caleb Mitchell, taking over for him to run the C-team.  Former Aquinas varsity wing, Eric Ewing, will assist him.

Coach Ewing (year 31), Coach Hammons (year 25) and Coach BWhite (year 15) will all return to steer the varsity. 

Hopefully, we will not only nab England's theme but also their desire to tweak what has held them back recently to see if we can actually (credit to Kyli Jackson) bring it home. We know Southwest returns a truckload from last year's title and is currently ranked in the Top 10 in the US in two separate polls.  But a corner kick here and there can change a lot.